Edited
“Hi, Hector. How’s your day been?” Edward smiled as soon as the other walked in.
“Same as always. Lucas is mean!” He pouted and jumped on the sofa, crossing his legs on it.
Edward laughed out loud. “That’s because you’re a literal brat! You gave that old man a dead rat saying it was an old plushie. Where did you even get a dead rat from?!” The doctor was saying it with such amusement that for a second Edwin, who was sitting on the chair in the far corner of the room by the window, thought he enjoyed all the trouble Hector made. Actually, Edwin was sure that Edward had grown a liking for Hector. He was always laughing like a fool whenever the nurses told him about the mess the brat had made. He could bet Edward was the only person who found them funny. Well, he and Hector’s partner in crime, aka Joshua!
“The yard! But still, Lucas didn’t have to lock me in the room for a whole 5 hours. I was starved!”
“No one dies from 5 hours of not eating!” Edwin snorted.
Hector turned back to look at him. The chair was behind the sofa therefore he was sitting behind Hector.
“For someone who’s only skin and bones, maybe.” He pointed at Edwin, showing it was him he was talking about. “For me, on the other hand, it’s actual torture. Can’t believe that fool went days without food.”
Edwin’s smile wiped off his face as he heard it. Did someone starve Aiden in the past?! Why was there so much he didn’t know about? How could anyone do that to a person like Aiden? He was a literal angel. Is.
He IS a literal angel, Edwin.
He had lost all hope in having his lover back, he was using past tense now. Great.
“I’ll buy you some snacks. Hide them in your room so that the next time Lucas locks you in, you’ll have food.” Edward winked at him. “By the way, who’s that fool? Aiden? Why did he starve?! Was he too lazy to go get food or something?”
Edwin knew what Edward was doing. He had done it so many times himself as well. Acting all dumb and friendly just to get the info you wanted to know.
Hector shook his head while pouting again. He looked like a kid like that. It was actually kind of cute.
“Nope. He was given a choice. To do what he was asked and go home, or get locked in and starve until he agreed to do so. He chose the latter. Went for days until neared death. They had to take him to the hospital when the boss got mad and forced some acid down his throat, and that’s why he got that stomach condition that he sells off as ‘stomach flu’ and somehow everyone believes him. Well, at least they actually let him go that time.” He paused. “Whoops, I didn’t mean to tell you that.” He said with a devilish smirk that showed that he indeed had meant to say it.
“Oi, you’re not someone who just lets things slip. Why did you tell us if it’s supposed to be a secret?” Edward smirked back at him.
“Just to show that he’s not as much of a saint as Edwin here might think.” He turned around to look at Edwin again. “He says he hates lying, right? But he actually lied to everyone about this. Even to you!” He sat properly again and shrugged. “Me, on the other hand, I would never go through something like that in the first place. He is too soft for his own good.”
“Couldn’t you take over and do the task so that they would leave the both of you alone?” Edward asked, completely focused on Hector.
“Well,… despite what you might think, and that’s because you haven’t met Aiden, he is strong. Like, really strong. I can’t come out until he is seriously damaged. At that time, he had his will on fighting against the system or something equally stupid. Besides, I don’t know shit about what they wanted him to do.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but… you seem to adore Aiden. I mean, you always talk good about him whenever he comes up. Well, if we put the insults aside, that is.” The doctor chuckled.
“He is an idiot, but he is a good person. But! It’s sooooo much fun teasing him. He thought he was actually going mental when I started talking to him again.” Hector laughed out loud like he had genuinely enjoyed torturing Aiden like that.
Edwin could never forget how the poor soul had slid down the wall, crying helplessly, trying to get the voices to stop.
“That was you?! The voice telling him he was trash was you!? What the fuck is wrong with you! Why would you torture him like that?” Edwin found himself yelling at the guy who was just looking back at him with an expressionless face. And then he just shrugged and turned back to Edward, like nothing had happened. Edwin wanted to choke him to death. He couldn’t stand being in one room with him anymore, so he just stormed off without saying anything.
DeleteCreated with Sketch.
It was after lunch. Almost everyone was taking naps, so the yard was rather empty. Edwin sat on the rock by the fountain they always used to sit with Aiden. Tears were rolling down his face nonstop. He had wiped the first few ones but then had given up, as there was no point if they kept coming down. He watched how his own tears fell on the grass, disappearing there.
He heard quiet steps before someone sat beside him. He knew the body scent by heart, so he didn’t even look up. It was Hector.
The guy handed him a canned coffee, which he accepted cos his throat was really dry. But he didn’t look at him at all.
“I didn’t do that to torture him. He was in pain. You have no idea how much he blamed himself for what happened to you.” Hector spoke slowly, so much unlike his usual tone.
“He was in pain and then you decided to add to it by saying those things. Noted.” Edwin snapped and took a sip from the drink.
“No. You don’t understand. I wanted him to give in. To let me out so that I could take care of things. When I’m out, he doesn’t feel pain anymore. I had to do something in order to make him crack. Talking to him was the only thing I could think of.” The voice kept getting quieter as the words continued.
Edwin was surprised, no, shocked by the motive behind all that. He turned his head and stared at Hector with wide eyes. The other smiled slightly. That smile looked… apologetic.
“When I first came out, he was so young and so broken. He felt unloved. Like someone who shouldn’t have been born at all. There were flames everywhere. And when that man came in and rescued us, I couldn’t stand being around them. I hated them all for what they had done to Aiden. So I just ran. I ran away until… well, until I fell down and everything went black. I stayed for a while. Making sure everyone knew that I absolutely hated them. I didn’t talk to any of the fuckers who dared to call themselves Den’s ‘family’.” Hector said that word with such a poisonous tone that Edwin could feel it deep within his heart.
“And then after a while, he just… somehow found his way back and pushed me to the side. As soon as he was out, he started hurting again. I hate the way they looked at him, blamed him, and called him out for being ‘that guy’s son’ when he did something that didn’t meet their expectations. So I started talking to him. I knew how he blamed himself for everything when it was absolutely not his fault at all, so I just took advantage of it. I actually managed to come out for a few hours but he fought his way back again. That’s when I knew I can’t beat him. When…” Hector’s voice trembled a bit and he cleared his throat.
Edwin was listening to him silently. The sound of water the only thing that broke the momentary silence.
“When you got hurt, his whole soul got crushed. I couldn’t stand it. I hated you for being the cause of his suffering. I hated you even more than I hate Ian. I just wanted him to let me out. So I started talking to him again, but he wasn’t that weak kid anymore, so he didn’t let me out. And then I decided to up my game. I decided I would need to make you believe he was actually crazy so that you would leave him and that would be the end of his suffering and also the ultimate breaking point where he would just crawl deep inside and let me handle it for him. But then…” Hector, who had been looking at the ground until now, turned to him and looked at him with such soft eyes that made Edwin’s heart skip a beat.
“Then you ran to him, hugged him, and didn’t stop saying caring words. I could hear them, everything you said and everything you did to make him calm down. I was so shocked that it made me shut up and let you be the one who fixed him. I… I started hating you less…” There was that genuine smile again, the one that actually met Hector’s eyes and wasn’t fake like most of the time.
“You actually did a good job, for the most part, you kept him stable. Everything was going perfectly until… they kidnapped him again.” The older bit his lip hard enough to break the skin as he frowned. “They made him watch an innocent girl get torn into pieces. The images didn’t leave him. And he just, he just shut down his whole feelings. He didn’t feel anything, not even toward you! And then he did… that… I’m sorry you had to go through it. He wasn’t in his right mind at all.”
“Thank you.” Edwin smiled at him. “Who’s… they Hector? Who did this to him and why? Please tell me.” He spoke as gently as he could. For some reason, Hector looked so breakable at that moment.
The other made eye contact with him again and hesitated for a few seconds. “Some people who learned to take advantage of his skills in computer stuff by threatening. That’s all I can tell you. He doesn’t want anyone to know.” He paused. “Anyway, I wanted to take over while he was asleep and at his weakest but also was kind of curious if you could also make him calm down then and how you would even react after what happened, so I just waited. I was sure you would just leave him or beat him or something, but you… you smiled at him and everything. I didn’t understand your behavior. No one had ever loved him that way. So unconditionally. And then he went rogue. And then I took over. He would really lose himself if I hadn’t. I’m gonna be honest, I hated you at first. If you had just left him, he would be busy doing his music happily and not feeling all those guilt and hurt. I couldn’t even look at you or stand to be around you.” Hector inhaled deeply, straightening his back. He closed his eyes and smiled. “Little by little, I got to know why Aiden loved you so much. Little by little…” Hector tilted his head toward him. “I fell for you. I got to understand how deep your feelings are for him. These months, I’ve tried every way, said every bad thing about him I know to make you disgusted and go away, but you stayed. Despite the hell I put you through, you still stayed and never lost hope.”
Edwin couldn’t even dare to breathe. He was so taken aback by the confession, all of it, that he was just sitting there, staring at the person who was so different from what he thought. Neither of them talked for minutes that felt like hours. Until Hector pulled his bratty self again and grabbed him by the shoulder. Edwin was pulled up by the grip and before he could do anything, Hector threw him right into the fountain. He struggled for some seconds, shocked and all from the coldness of the water and the fact that this asshole had the audacity to do this to him after such a heartfelt conversation. He threw a death glare toward Hector, who was just standing there, laughing and pointing at him like there was no tomorrow. There were actual tears in the corners of his eyes from how hard he was laughing at his misery.
“YOU FUCKING PUNK!” Edwin screamed at him and splashed water in his way. The water did hit the older, but he just stuck his tongue at him like a freaking 2-year-old and started running away.
Edwin got out of the fountain, freezing, but determined to make Hector pay for what he had done. He ran after him. He caught him just as Hector was about to close his room’s door and managed to overpower him and get in. He started punching him and the manchild just laughed harder.
After a while, while Edwin was still not satisfied with his revenge, his whole body started trembling, shaking from the coldness of his wet clothes. He stopped his beating and circled his arms around himself. “I hate you. If I catch a cold, you’re seriously dead.”
Hector chuckled and picked his blanket from the bed. He walked to Edwin and wrapped it around him hurriedly. “Let’s get you to your room so you can change your clothes before you die. Your lips are turning purple. It’s not even that cold! Tsktsk!” He clicked his tongue with a judging look.
“Shut up. You’re not the one with water dripping down their clothes.” He wrapped it around himself tighter and started walking fast toward his own room.
“Are you gonna stare at me like that all the while I’m changing or something?!” He said, raising his eyebrow at Hector who was sitting at the edge of the bed, looking at him.
The other shrugged and looked down. “You’re not even that hot!”
“Then that’s more reason for you to not look.” He undressed completely and changed into new ones at the speed of the light. “Done.”
Hector looked back up with a smirk on his face and a pillow came flying in Edwin’s direction.
“I. Am. COLD. Hector! Don’t throw pillows at me. It hurts!” He deadpanned and picked the pillow up, walking to Hector and hitting him several times with it.
Hector didn’t dodge at first but then he grabbed the pillow suddenly, pulled it toward him, pulling Edwin along with it, and turned such that Edwin landed on the bed on his back and Hector on top of him. That pillow was the only thing between them.
It was like those cheesy teenager movies. They stayed in that position, looking into each other’s eyes without even the sound of their breaths interrupting the moment. Edwin didn’t know what was going on, but he also didn’t push the other away. He just stayed and looked into Hector’s eyes in search of something. Anything that meant the other really had meant the things he said, that he really cared.
Hector looked back at him with such a soft look that it almost reminded him of how Aiden used to look at him. And then he started leaning in. He closed the distance between them slowly, getting closer to Edwin’s face and staring at his lips. Just when he was about to press their lips together, Edwin turned his head. He might have liked Hector now, but he wasn’t the one he loved. And the way he liked the other wasn’t in any way romantic.
Hector giggled and let himself fall next to Edwin on the bed, making them both bounce on it a bit.
“From a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you love him?” The question was childish. How could he put what he felt for the singer in a mere 10?… But then again, Hector was more of a kid than a grownup.
“11.” He answered simply.
“That’s all I needed to know.” Hector said before he jumped off the bed and left the room after blowing him a kiss and a wink. He didn’t understand what Hector meant by ‘That’s all I needed to know’ but he just shrugged it off. He crawled under his blanket and soon he fell asleep.
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The rays of sunshine hit his face. Groaning and pulling the blanket over his eyes, he decided to surrender and wake up. He sat up and opened his eyes… only to find himself in an unfamiliar place. Where was he?!
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